John Pudner, executive director of Take Back Our Republic, a conservative group advocating for campaign finance reform, says lobbying combined with campaign cash creates a system that hurts taxpayers.

“Stopping the revolving door is important, but also realizing that somebody is trading millions in lobbying and campaign contributions for billions in taxpayer money — that’s a big problem for Americans,” he said. For starters, he would like to see more public disclosure by lobbyists, campaign contributors and people bidding for government contracts.

He says there’s a legitimate place for lobbying and representing the interests of businesses, but the incentives in the system lead to wasteful government spending.

“People on the left refer to it as ‘campaign finance reform,’ and people on the right refer to it as ‘draining the swamp,'” he said. “They’re talking about the same thing. Call it whatever you want, people want things cleaned up.”